All Alone
by Dead Jester Abey
Summary: Intarzu agrees to a deal with the King to get back her freedom. The deal? To save the prince, what could go wrong? It's got action, humor, a touch of romance and Jing! [King of Bandit Jing]


**All Alone**

Chapter 1

"Your Majesty, this is an urgent matter" said a man surrounded by royal guards. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of a meeting? Or has a horse died?" said the King sarcastically. "Your Majesty this is much, much more important than a mea horse" said the man. The king scowled at the man and said "Backson, this _better_ be _very important_, you'll have to excuse me Sir Nights". The man, Backson, nodded and followed the King into the next room through a secret door in the wall. In the room was a desk, a large window, a red mat and wall hangings that hung from the roof to the floor. The King sat down and rubbed his head then said "okay, what is it this time? And I worn you if it's something ridiculous you will loose your job". Backson took a deep breath and handed the King a sort letter, it read:

_Your Majesties,_

_We have kidnapped your son Prince William James Fredrick, we will return him safely if you abide by our rules and give us what we want. First choice you can hand over all your money, valuables, intelligence of weapons and your Kingdom. Second choice you can only send one guard, night or whom ever you choose to get him back, if you send more than one we will start chopping toes and fingers off and they won't be ours. Third and final rule, you only have three months to do whatever you please then we will kill him._

_Yours truly, the Wrath_

"The Wrath?" said the King astounded. "Wrath are vampiric-like demons with the ability to instantly speed up to speeds so high that they are barely viable to the human eye. They also drink blood, are very powerful and can withstand full sunlight but they are also very ugly" explained Backson. "I know what the Wrath are but why would they kidnap my son? How?" said the King with confusion in his voice. After a moment of silence the King said "what can we do? We are only human and Wrath eat humans. To send one human into a swarm of Wrath would be suicide, not even the best human warrior in the world could stand a second in battle against one Wrath. So hundreds of Wrath would be out of the question".

The King took the note and returned to the other room. The room was plain with nothing in it accepts a large table and chairs, on the chairs were the knights of his kingdom. The King sat in his chair at the head of the table. "What's wrong Your Majesty?" said a Night. "I have horrible news, and there is not much we can do about it" said the King "Well what is it?" said another knight. the King sighed and said slowly "the prince, my son, has been… kidnapped by… the Wrath… and our only options are to give them this Kingdom or send one of us to rescue him". There was complete silence in the room until a Knight asked "what can we do then?" The King looked even sadder than when he first entered the room and said "nothing… there's nothing we can do". Backson stepped forward and said "Your Majesty, there is one thing we could do to save your son and the kingdom". The King looked at him "And what's that?" Backson cleared his voice and said "Well I have served this royal family all my long life and when I was a child I served you father King Andrios ll. I found that he was a scientist in the most, er, unusual way". "And what does that mean?" asked the King. "In the lowest part of the dungeons is the… leftovers of his experiments… he always said to me that it does well to prepare for war not start it" said Backson.

The dungeons were built of huge old stones, the walls were slimy and everything stunk. "Here we are" said Backson, the King unimpressed as he looked down the long, dark, corridor with doors on both sides of the walls. Backson took an old piece of paper out of one of his pockets, walked over to a door, looked at a number and muttered "this is number two" then walked over to the door on the other wall and checked the number. "King Andrios always said this one was his favorite" said Backson as he opened the door for the King. Behind the door was a room with no light but when they brought the torches in they saw that half way across the room were bars. The same bars used in the prisons. In the far corner of the other side of the room was a grey lump with cloth on it. "What on Earth is the world's biggest lump of dust going to do to the Wrath?" said the King. Backson stepped forward and said very formally "please show yourself clearly", nothing happened, he sighed "pretty please?" The grey lump stood up and moved to the middle of its cage. "Good lord, is that a child?" said the King in astonishment as he squinted his eyes to get a better look at it. It looked like a teenager, about 15 years old, its skin was grey, and it was a thin with thick, almost black hair. The King leant forward a little and asked in a quite voice "what are you?" not really expecting an answer. The thing tilted its head and said in a deep, rude voice "why should I tell you?"

There was a pause of silence before Backson said "Please, don't talk to His Majesty in that manor". It turned around and started back towards its corner where it was sleeping before these humans intruded. "We're willing to make a deal" said the King, the thing stopped dead in its tracks and said "now we are getting somewhere, tell me your situation". The King scowled at it "how did you know we had a situation?" "Your Majesty, it only takes a little bit of logic to figure out something that simple, firstly when I insulted you, you did not order my death for offending your royal Majesty, second no one has been down here for ages except dear Backson over here who brings me food. Third to make a deal with me is dangerous, so for Backson to bring Your Majesty down to see me personally must mean that you are in a dire situation" it said. The King eyed the creature and said "very well then, my son has been kidnapped by the Wrath and we only have three months to get him back before they kill him" "what is the catch?" it asked. "Why do you think there's a catch?" asked the King. "There is always a catch" it answered. The King sighed "we are only allowed to send one person, otherwise they will kill him". The thing turned its head to the other side "to send a human into the Wrath city alone would be suicide" "even though I am King I cannot make you retrieve him, and I understand if you choose not to" replied the King. Again there was another odd silence. "If you give me your word in blood that you will give me what I want then I will bring back your Prince" it said. "And what might those things be?" the King said suspiciously. "My freedom, all my belongings and most importantly the necklace that your farther took from me and put in the royal treasure chamber" it said. "Very well then, we will both sign a contract in blood and as soon as that has happened you will go save my son" said the king. The creature straightened up and said "agreed". The king stepped forward to shake its hand when Backson said "That may not be a good idea Your Majesty". The King looked at the creature, it pulled its hand out of its pocket to reveal a grey hand with long thick black nails as long as it's hand and waved a finger side to side, signaling 'no'.

Later that day after releasing the creature and giving it a room to stay in, the king and the creature introduced them selves. "Backson, summon my Queen to my chambers, she will be in the garden, I need to discuss this issue with her" said the king. Backson bowed and went to find the Queen. "Intarzu Corrack" the creature said, but this time it said it in a girls voice. "Excuse me?" said the king, "that is my name" she said as she pulled her hair out of her face. Her nose looked ever so slightly like it had been broken, her lips were dry and cracked but small, and her whole eyes were black and shiny but looked tired. "Er, yes, my name is Andrios the third" said the king as he stared at her eyes in disbelief, not knowing where she was looking. "Is there anywhere I can clean up?" she asked as she tilted her head to one side. "Ah, yes, through that door, I will send some maids to bring some clean cloths for you as well" Andrios said as he pointed to a door. She bowed her head, said thank you and headed in that direction after the King had left.

The sun was very bright to her sensitive eyes, so she closed the windows leaving the room in darkness then headed over to the bath. She ran the water into the bath but didn't add any of the smelling oils, she slipped into the bath. It was warm and soothing, it reminded her of something or someone but she couldn't remember what or who. Her thoughts were interrupted when a door opened, a maid walked in carrying many different cloths. "Here you go Madam, there are a few different thing to choose from and" said the maid but fell silent when she saw Intarzu. The maid stood there frozen with fright and fear "Yes? May I help you with something?" Intarzu said. The maid dropped the cloths and ran out the room screaming. Intarzu sighed to herself, not because of the stupidity of the maid but because she hadn't been able to wash and she was carrying about a century worth of dirt on her. Two baths later she was clean and choose her cloths, she had no interest in the dresses because they were impractical to rescuing anyone in these conditions. Instead she chose a baggy pair of pants, a singlet top and a patch work denim jacket. From a corset she took the string from it and tied back her extremely long hair and two unused writing quills and further bound her hair until it was a strange looking bun with pieces of hair neatly poking out.

Although the light was harsh to her eyes she still set out to see how mush things have changed since the last time she saw the sky. She walked through the castle heading towards the gardens and every person she passed either screamed and ran the other way or gasped in horror and fell to their knees. After much screaming and gasping she finally made it to the gardens, the care takers of the gardens ran away at the sight of her leaving her to enjoy the silence of nature. She sat in the shade under a tree and remembered her own home, the plants where different but had the same soothing effect on her as it did back then. Hours passed like seconds to her as she watched the flowers dance in the wind, and soon sun set came.

A messenger boy ran down from the castle, through the gardens to her and said "malady Corrack, the King wishes you, he is this way". Intarzu followed the boy back through the garden, and not once did he take his eyes off her, knowing that a child like him would probably think that she was going to eat him so he said in the kindest voice she had "if it makes you feel any better, I will not hurt you". That must have been what he was thinking because he stopped dead in his tracks and whispered "I-I wasn't thinking that" she smiled and replied "either way I wouldn't hurt you because you haven't done anything bad to me" the child thought for ma moment and seemed to believe her. After that he became quite talkative "when I first saw you I though you where a monster or something, you really scared me" he said. 'It has been so long since anyone has spoken to me without fear, it is nice, even if it is a child' she thought.

"I'll just announce you to His Majesty" he said as they walked up to two large doors, he poked his head through the door way and whispered to someone on the other side. "Your Majesties, lady Intarzu Corrack has arrived" called a man, "okay see you another time" said the boy as he ran off. Intarzu walked through the door into a huge room that must have been the throne room; there was red carpet on the floor, huge portraits on the walls and white marble pillars. She walked to the step near the king and queen, got on one knee and bowled, the whole time the other people that had been invited to watch gasped and whispered. "That is not how a lady is to act in front of our King and Queen" said someone near the king, most probably the advisor she thought.

Despite the rude way he had spoken to her she said nothing and didn't rise from her bowl. "You may rise" said the King, she stood and showed no emotion on her face. "Are you the one who is to save our son?" asked the Queen "That I am" replied Intarzu. The Queen whispered in the Kings ear "Are you sure you trust our sons life in this girls hands, look at her, and does she even know what she's getting herself into?" the King sighed. "Lady Corrack what do you know about the wraith?" asked the King, "I know that they despise vampires despite being decedents of them, I know that they can live for centuries but eventually die, they can tolerate light and most holy objects, they don't drink blood but suck the very life itself from it's victim. I know their culture and rituals, I also know how to bring any of their strongest warriors to his or her knees and cry for me to end his or her life" Intarzu replied. The King smiled and said "now tell us how well can you fight" "I am a shadow worrier, I am the first to enter a battle of war and the last to leave" she replied. "Then how come you where in our dungeon?" asked the Queen "I was a wedding gift to keep this family safe, but instead I was throng into the dungeon and studied" Intarzu said.

"Are you convinced?" the King whispered in the queens' ear "Yes" she whispered back "Very well, shall we sign the contract?" asked the King. A man came over with the rolled up contract and presented it to Intarzu, she unrolled and quickly read it through including the fine print that a normal person would have needed a magnifying glass to read. "Why is it that I get everything before the rescue but my necklace?" asked Intarzu. "If you find a way to get out of a blood contract before the rescue of my son then you could just run away, and we'd be left hopeless again" replied the queen before the king could answer. "I agree to it then, but not even the gods can get out of a blood contract so there is no way I could" said Intarzu, as another man came over with a quill and a needle. Right down the bottom of the page the king had already put his signature and a thumb print in his blood. She wrote her name in her home language then took the needle and jabbed a hole in the middle of her left hand, blood seeped out and she rubbed her thumb in it. When her thumb was covered in blood she pushed her right thumb on the contract next to her name.

The man who brought it out to her came and took it away from her, she asked "so when do I leave?" the king replied "as soon as you can". "Give me my things back and I'll leave to find him immediately" she said, the king replied "very well, get her possessions and some food for her to take". A woman brought out some food in a brown paper bag and a boy brought out her old bag. "I'll take my leave" Intarzu said then bowed, the queen quickly said "won't you need a horse? It will take you months to get to the wrath city and we don't have that mush time" Intarzu smiled and said "I won't be walking" then she left the room. The queen whispered in the kings' ear again "what does she mean by that?" the king frowned and replied "I don't know".

_ If I have made any mistakes in spelling or grammar that I have missed please let me know immediately and I'll try to sort out the problem a.s.a.p. thanks _


End file.
